Requirements of a Bet
by whitesakura
Summary: Attractive youth. Vivid green eyes. These merit an offer, but it is the soul beneath them that clinches the Bet. A Seishirou fic. (Semi-sequel to “Suspension.”)


Disclaimer: I (still) don't own X. 

Warnings: Shounen-ai hints. Knowledge of Tokyo Babylon highly recommended prior to reading this fic.

Summary: One cannot feel, but one can be amused. Yet, can a bet become more than merely interesting to the Sakurazukamori? A Seishirou fic. (Semi-sequel to "Suspension.")

Notes: Written when I was in a better mood than my last X fic. Have fun trying to crack Sei-chan's mask! Oh, and to understand the coffee reference in "Suspension," please refer to my older fic called "The Significance of Coffee." Requirements of a Bet 

It was late afternoon in Ueno Park, but despite the warm weather, only a few families were spreading red-and-white checkered cloth on the grass. The ground was still dewy from last night's rainfall, and only the children running around barefoot did not seem to think it was a shame. A few wandering couples passed by the Tree, halting to point to its blossoms. The flowers were in full bloom and of the palest pink, while the Tree's neighbors had just begun to bud. Despite the admiring stares, no one opted to sit beneath the Tree's vaulting branches. The ground was littered with sakura, and the sweet scent would become overwhelming to most before long. 

The Sakurazukamori smiled, unnoticed as another group passed. 

Seishirou leaned against the trunk, hidden, a cigarette burning between his fingers. He could see patches of blue sky between the pink blossoms. The wind blew and the branches danced for him in a private performance. As payment, he lifted his free hand and pressed a red smear against the entertainer's skin. The handprint faded. The blood had been absorbed in less than seconds.  

It was a beautiful day in Tokyo. But few things were pleasant to him now, and almost nothing amusing anymore. 

Seishirou Sakurazuka had grown detached from his life.

"Ah, gomen!" 

A pig-tailed cherub looked up. Seishirou smiled gently and bent down to retrieve the rogue ball that had collided with his feet. With a ginger push, he rolled it back to its owner. The child picked the object up and instead of running back to the open lawns, she moved closer to the man in curiosity. "You know, you shouldn't smoke. Daddy's mommy smoked and then she died."

"Oh?"

The girl nodded sagely, then frowned, "Yep, she got lung cancer. It's when you get real sick, and the doctors can't fix it." 

"I'm sorry to hear that." Meaningless words.

"It's okay, I got grandma's room now. I don't have to share with my brother anymore," the girl beamed. If Seishirou had been an emotional man, he would have been genuinely surprised. 

"Did she suffer?"

_"Do you know why the sakura is pink?"_

The green-eyed boy shook his head, and his whole body shifted along with it, overflowing with emotion. The white onmyouji robes wavered like wings.  

"I dunno. I never saw a lot of her."

_"It's because there are corpses buried under there. It's blood that makes the flowers pink." _

Seishirou released the captured petal in his hand. The green eyes had gone wide.

The girl scuffed her shoe against the ground, ashamed she did not have the knowledge the stranger was looking for. In her own defense she suddenly looked up and added while shrugging, "Does it really matter if she suffered? We all end up in the ground."

"Did your Daddy tell you that?"

Her face scrunched up in concentration, "No, he said we go to heaven." She pointed at the sky, "But there's nothing up there. Only airplanes and balloons. I saw them put grandma in the ground. So we must all go into the ground."

_"But, don't the people buried under the sakura suffer?"_

"Don't you think that's very sad?"

"No, why should I? People go away, so other people can live better lives. That's what Mommy told me. We're going to move into a new house soon, 'cuz we don't have to pay the hospital anymore."

"I suppose it doesn't matter," Seishirou took of his sunglasses and patted the girl's head. He knelt to peer into her face at eye level. The child did not even blink at their mismatch colors. All she did was poke him in the nose and laugh. Her eyes were a lovely verdant color, but as lively as they were, they were also somehow cold. Seishirou had seen lovelier ones, once.

_He took the small hands gently into his own._

"Let's make a bet… you and I…"

"Oji-san, do you want to eat with my family?"

"Hmm?"

She pointed, "They're over that hill. We're having a picnic. You can come along."

 It should have been pleasant for him. Seishirou had enjoyed many outings with Hokuto-chan, and Subaru-kun during the year of the bet. Instead, he made an excuse, "But my hand is dirty."

The child squinted at the lingering traces of crimson on his palm, "That's okay, you can wash them at the fountain." She dragged him over to the nearby fountain on the pathway, and pressed the button to turn on the water. "My Daddy's a butcher. He gets blood on him all the time." She scrubbed so hard that her own fingers were beginning to bruise red. 

"Things have really changed," Seishirou mused as he looked at his hard little worker, unfazed by the substance on his hand. 

"Oji-san, this part's not coming off."

"It's alright. My hands will never be clean," Seishirou smiled benignly and retracted his hand. 

"Okay. But you're not going to cry are you? My brother got permanent marker on himself once and he couldn't get it off, so he cried. A lot. He's such a baby."

_"To me, breaking your arm is the same as breaking a glass cup."_

Seishirou watched the tears manifest, the emerald eyes fill with pain. The sixteen-year-old boy was hurting, but not just outside, inside too. 

Seishirou had never seen something so transparently beautiful.

"Do you cry?"

"Nope. The doctor said Grandma wasn't strong enough to live. She cried a lot. I'm not going to be like that. Even Daddy cried, but I didn't."

"Would you like to make a bet?"

"A bet?"

"What if I killed your whole family, would you cry then?"

"Haha…you're joking, Oji-san!" The girl laughed and smacked his arm playfully. 

_"But, don't the people buried under the sakura suffer?" _

_The little boy stared at the Tree again before he turned toward the stranger. His face was contorted in helpless distress. His emerald eyes serious and beseeching. His robes fluttered around him like feathers stripped from a struggling dove by a bird of prey._

_"Let's make a bet…you and I."_

"Yes, I suppose I am joking," Seishirou smirked. She wasn't enticing enough to start another bet. In fact, as he stared into her candid gaze, he would say she wasn't worth it at all. Besides, his first one was still in play…and had been for over nine years. 

"Oji-san, there's a sakura flower in your hair," the girl jumped up to get a closer look at the nestled blossom. Seishirou took the bloom from his lush black locks - fleetingly, he imagined them decaying to gray in the next few years - and held it between his fingers.

"Do you know why the sakura is pink?"

The girl looked at him as if he had spouted another head.

"Never mind, even if you knew, I doubt you'd find it any less beautiful. In some ways, we are alike," Seishirou placed it in one of her red hair clips, "It suits you well."

"Thanks, Oji-san. Bye-bye!"

Seishirou cheerfully waved back, but even as he did, he knew he would not remember her come the next day. That honor belonged to someone else.

_"Let's make a bet… you and I. When we meet next, I will do my best to love you in a year. And if I feel true feelings for you, you will win. If not," he glanced toward the crumpled body lying in the shadows of the Tree, "Then you will be like that thing there. Do you understand?"_

_The breeze had begun to pick up during the Sakurazukamori's explanation, and although the green eyes looked earnestly at him, they were also confused._

_"Onii-san, I'm sorry, I can't hear you. The wind!"_

His smile did not slip as the girl looked back once more before she disappeared with a last wave over the crest of the hill. The Sakurazukamori lit up another cigarette and began to draw it to his lips when something made him pause. The brands on his prey were glowing. 

The thirteenth head of the Sumeragi Clan was close.

Seishirou discarded his cigarette. He smiled and sighed, "Well, it looks like the final day is at hand. I suppose I shall have to pay you a visit, Subaru-kun."  Subconsciously, he sidestepped the fallen cigarette and avoided crushing its burning embers. 

Maybe, Seishirou told himself as he faded in an illusion of sakura, there were some things that still amused the Sakurazukamori after all.

The cigarette burned on.

Owari.

Thanks for reading! I'd love to hear what you thought of it. Please **review**.  


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